


Scandalous

by pretzel_logic



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Barry and Hartley are friends., Hartley is a spiteful little shit, M/M, barry is a good friend, his friends less so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 23:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6304180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pretzel_logic/pseuds/pretzel_logic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry agrees to go a party with Hartley as moral support and meets an interesting party crasher.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scandalous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [languageismymistress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/languageismymistress/gifts).



> Inspired by this [post](http://flashsvibe.tumblr.com/post/138391974613/flashweather-au-for)

0

Barry never really thought much of the night he met Hartley Rathaway. Jitters had been crowded and one guy asking if it was okay to share a table was not a big deal. Sure, it had been surprising his table partner had an interest in science even if their area of interest were very different. It had been a fun conversation, but Barry had walked away from it thinking that had been the end of things.

Hartley felt very differently. Barry met him again a week later, the genius joining him at his table despite the generous amount of open seating. Barry had not minded and enjoyed picking their conversation up from where they had left off. The two of them kept meeting up at Jitters and after a while Barry was happy to count Hartley as a friend. Sure he was a little of a know it all jerk, but Barry knew it was not personal so he did his best not to let Hartley’s attitude get to him.

Thanks to Hartley, Barry even made some amazing friends in Cisco and Caitlin. So when Hartley asked him to go with him to a black tie event as a friend he had not seen a reason to say no.

1

“Mom, Dad, this is my boyfriend, Barry Allen,” Hartley introduced with a false sweetness that was pure venom. 

He should have said no. He really should have said no. Barry knew Hartley did not get along with his parents, especially over his sexuality. The Rathaways saw it as a major flaw in their otherwise perfect son. Hartley had mentioned more than once his parents had never really wanted a child, simply someone to pass their legacy onto after their deaths. That Hartley was hard of hearing, even after countless corrective surgeries, and homosexual were major flaws in his parents’ eyes. Of course Hartley was going to use this party, and Barry’s friendship, to show how little he cared for his parents’ homophobia.

“Hey Mr. and Mrs. Rathaway, lovely party you’re throwing,” Barry managed to say nervously, offering his hand to shake.

Mr. Rathaway looked down at Barry's hand like it was covered in biohazardous waste. “Yes… A delight to meet you, Mr. Allen. Hartley, could we perhaps have a private word with you?”

“Of course,” Hartley agreed in a still false sweet-toxic tone. “Sorry about this, Barry, but do you mind? We shouldn't be too long.”

Barry was no genius but he understood what Hartley was really saying. He supposed a late apology for using him was better than nothing and really, after the look Mr. Rathaway gave him he was willing to go for broke in Hartley’s game.

“Yeah, of course, Hart. Just come find me afterwards, okay?” Barry asked as he took his unshaken hand to wrap it around Hartley's waist and give him a chaste kiss on the lips.  
He might have squeaked when Hartley upped the ante and pinched his ass. Hartley looked as if he was a force of vindictive nature as he walked away with his parents and Barry took a moment to appreciate it. At least he was not on Hartley’s bad side.

Of course, once Barry stopped following Hartley with his eyes he noticed more than one party attendee giving Barry shocked or disgusted looks. Apparently Hartley's parents were not the only homophobes in at the party. He was going to need a drink to get through the night. Maybe a lot of drinks.

2

Mark smirked as he successfully made it into the art museum. Security sure was lax for an event that had several people with big names or big pockets in attendance. Then again, this was not Gotham. 

The DA was said to be here tonight. He and Mark needed to… talk about Clyde’s upcoming trial. Clyde never could get his act together and keep it that way. Mark had tried, time and again, to help Clyde live a good life and he was not about to let his brother go to jail for potentially the rest of his life.

What had Clyde been thinking, working with some thugs to steal and murder a drug dealer? Clyde was damn lucky the DA was known to be biddable.

The things he did for his brother.

Mark kept out of sight of the party attendees and caterers. He did not want to be kicked out before he talked to the DA. As far as Mark could tell the man was either running late or not attending. He waited over an hour for the man to show before deciding the party was a bust. He was on his way out when he spotted the guy that seemed to on his third or fourth champagne glass.

He recalled seeing the man show up with the Rathaway son and yet it looked like he had been ditched. Poor guy, probably had not known what he was signing up for as Rathaway’s date. It was a damn waste of a date, considering how cute the guy was.

Somehow the guy sensed Mark’s gaze and stared back at him. With a shameless smirk Mark looked the guy’s body down and back up before winking. He watched as the guy stared back at him in surprise before blushing redder than a tomato and giving Mark a hesitant smile.

The look sent a jolt of sudden want straight to Mark’s gut. Maybe the night wasn't a complete waste after all.

3

Barry couldn't explain it. He knew he was being watched and receiving plenty of dirty looks. Downing champagne like it was water did that. Yet he still felt eyes on him. Looking around Barry almost immediately spotted the man watching him.

He had to be a party crasher of some kind, he was not dressed up for the event at all; as a guest or caterer. Noticing Barry's gaze the man made a point of looking him over, smirking and winking.

Oh, wow. Barry had to look away as he felt his face burn at the attention. He was not used to being so obviously admired at all. Sure, Hartley and Iris insisted he was beyond worth being admired but both were also of the opinion Barry was not for them. Not that Barry minded just being Hartley's friend but Iris’s lack of interest always hurt. Always made him wonder why he was not good enough, and here was a guy openly showing interest. Barry offered the party crasher a hesitant smile and internally panicked as the man started to walk towards him.

Barry was not ready for this. He downed the rest of his current glass of champagne because he needed all the liquid courage he could get.

“Hey there, not having as much fun as you hoped?” The party crasher asked as he stood in front of Barry, studying the glass Barry emptied pointedly.

Chuckling nervously, Barry set the glass down on the nearby table. Unable to meet the man’s gaze Barry rubbed at the back of his neck. “Well, this isn't really my scene and I kind of got ditched,” Barry admitted. 

Really the last time he had been to an event like this it had been that ‘welcome back’ party Barry had attended as Felicity's plus one. Why did he always attend these kind of parties as a plus one? He clearly was not prepared for this kind of party.

“That's a shame, why not leave?”

Barry sighed, “Because I'm a good friend that promised moral support.”

Surprisingly the man laughed, startling Barry. He had a nice laugh, somehow very warm. Barry felt his face flushing with warmth. Barry was so out of practice with flirting. People just… didn't flirt with him. Not really. This exchange was going about as poorly as his first few conversations with Patty.

“Can't exactly provide moral support if you got ditched,” Barry's admirer pointed out, smiling at Barry with a heat in his gaze Barry was not used to seeing directed at him. “Dance with me?” 

Barry stared at the hand offered to him before looking at the dance floor nervously. “I… Uh, sure. Fair warning though, I got two left feet and am definitely tipsy.”

The party crasher shrugged, not lowering his arm as he smirked. “So I’ll lead.”

Shyly Barry took the offered hand and let himself be led to the dance floor. “Well, okay, uhm. This works.”

4

Mark was grateful after a few minutes into dancing that he was wearing boots. Cutie had not been joking about being horrible at dancing. They weren't even doing anything more complicated than holding hands and swaying in place. Mark didn't want to imagine how hard trying to do a waltz would be and that was one of the easiest dances in existence.

“Sorry,” Cutie muttered, face as red as a tomato as he stepped on Mark’s feet again.

“Relax, it's fine,” Mark assured. They were quiet for a few more beats before Mark decided to see if distracting Cutie would work. Chances were his feet were getting stepped on so much because his dance partner was overthinking it. “I’m Mark.”

“Oh! Barry. I mean, I’m Barry,” Barry hastily introduced himself, blush fading some only to return as he grew embarrassed over his verbal stumbling.

Mark chuckled in amusement. “You really weren't joking about being tipsy. How much did you drink?”

Barry hesitated before answering, unwilling to meet Mark's gaze. “Couple glasses of champagne. Within an hour. I’m not usually a lush. Just-”

“You got ditched,” Mark finished, moving them off the dance floor. Security did not seem interested in kicking him out for being underdressed for the event but better safe than sorry. He and Barry were drawing a lot of attention by dancing together and it looked like the ugly kind. Not that Mark expected any of these whiny rich people to be violent, rich assholes like these preferred words as their weapon of choice.

Barry nodded glumly, not even seeming to notice they were no longer dancing. “Not his fault… Well actually, it is all his fault. He planned it this way and didn't tell me,” Barry grumbled to himself, unintentionally loud enough for Mark to hear him.

“Sounds like an ass,” Mark said a little angrily. He did not understand why anyone would do that to Barry. Weren’t people past this shit after high school?

“He’s a good friend,” Barry defended immediately. “He just likes to piss off his parents when he can get away with it.”

“Still used and ditched you to do it. Come on, forget being ‘moral support’ for the jerk. We can go somewhere a lot better than this,” Mark suggested. He did not exactly feel comfortable with the idea of taking Barry somewhere private for sex, but maybe after hitting up Big Belly Burger or an actual dance club for a few hours Barry would sober up a bit for that.

5

Barry did not know what to make of Mark’s offer. He wasn’t the type to do a one night stand, but it had been a really long time since he had sex. An embarrassing long time. Patty had left Central months ago to pursue her career in forensic science and they had broken up a couple weeks before that. Not that Mark was necessarily offering Barry sex but it definitely seemed to be on the table and despite his reservations, Barry was interested.

“I don’t know…” Barry hedged and was grateful when his phone buzzed with a text alert. “Uhm, hold on.”

Barry smiled sheepishly at Mark as he pulled out his phone. He had missed the mocking responses from all his friends when he told them what Hartley did. Why was he the only one honestly surprised? Why did he have horrible friends? Thankfully, the newest text was from Hartley.

‘Honestly, I cannot stand how bigoted my parents are. Where are you?’

Barry bit his lower lip as he debated what to do. He could find Hartley and be the moral support he promised to be or go with Mark. He had no clue what to do but at least he could ask Hartley. 

‘I’m being picked up by a party crasher. He’s hot. Help. Advice?’

‘If you leave with him you’ll be a worse date than even Ramon would have managed.’ Was all Hartley texted at first which was no help whatsoever. 'Do it.’ Came a few seconds later and Barry was really grateful all of Hartley’s vindictive and spiteful attitude was aimed at his parents. He did not want to be on his friend’s bad side, ever.

Still, for all his faults at least Hartley was a good friend when he tried. Putting away his phone, Barry smiled at the patiently waiting Mark. “Let’s go.”

Mark smiled back at him before stepping shockingly closer to Barry. Before he could say or do anything Mark was kissing him. Barry squeaked slightly in surprise and Mark took advantage of Barry’s surprise to deepen the kiss. Even as he reciprocated Barry felt a bit embarrassed for their kiss. This event was totally not where you kissed like it was sex foreplay but well, Hartley had brought him to be scandalous and Barry thought he was doing a great job with Mark.

He felt a bit dazed as the kiss ended, letting Mark lead him by the hand out of the art museum and to the much appreciated sight of Big Belly Burger.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't care much for the title. Suggestions?
> 
> P. S. Thank you to Daughter_of_Scotland for beta-ing
> 
> I'm on tumblr as [pretzel-log1c](pretzel-log1c.tumblr.com) and [pretzel-writes](pretzel-writes.tumblr.com)
> 
> ETA: turned in comment moderation for reviewers that wish to leave private reviews (please specify so).


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